I have been looking at the availability of seed capital for startup’s in Montreal. Although there is plenty of VC capital available at the $1-2M level, I could not find any funds available at the $50K to $250K level. This is typically the space in which Angel investors operator rather than VC’s, so I delved a bit more into available statistics for Angel investing.
The Canadian national average has Angels providing 6-9% of all Risk Capital. In Quebec in 2005 (the latest figures I could find) Angels only provided 2.5% of all Risk Capital! Are these statistics actually indicative of the real life situation?
Seed capital at this level is essential to the development of ideas and first time entrepreneurs.
In enclaves such as Silicon Valley, where there is a sizable pool of talent, an increase in seed capital leads to an increases in the pool of entrepreneurs and (in time) the number of successful companies and associated role models. In turn, these companies and role models further aide the motivation and education of a new wave of entrepreneurs that will need seed capital … a “virtuous circle”.
As Montreal’s tech entrepreneurs start to become more active (tech breakfast, barcamp, blogs etc) it is essential that they have access to Angel level funding. I’m going to start looking for it … let me know if anyone else know’s where it is !
by Mat
John,
Not sure if you’ve come across the following yet, a contest called “Les Anges Financiers de Montreal”: http://www.angesfinanciers.qc.ca/index_EN.html
4 @$10K prizes, and 1 @ $5K + opportunity to network will angel investors. I notice that they’re having a gala evening on wednesday to showcase a number of the “pre-selection” companies…
by john
Thanks Mat – I hadn’t seen this. I’ve signed up to attend the main soiree and will provide an update on Montreal’s Angel community once the event has happened.